


'cuz we're the greatest / they'll hang us in the louvre

by zeitgeistofnow



Series: each night i ask the stars up above / why must I be a teenager in love? [3]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/F, M/M, Pining, summertime, thats what this is, the zukka is background because i wanted to write LESBIANS, uhh you know when you get nostalgic for the teenage experience you never had and only saw in movies?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-13
Updated: 2020-07-13
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:08:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25235191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zeitgeistofnow/pseuds/zeitgeistofnow
Summary: suki sits outside yue’s window. she’s wedged between a few thick branches, twigs in her hair, and the early evening wind brushes through her hair like fingers running through sand. if she takes her earbuds out she can hear yue inside, hurriedly changing from pajamas to jeans and a crop top. the rustling of clothes, the quiet pop of a lipstick container being opened.the summer night air sits heavily on her shoulders, humidity waiting to fall into dew. it smells like nostalgia for something suki doesn't remember.
Relationships: Sokka/Zuko (Avatar), Suki/Yue (Avatar), Zuko & Suki & Yue & Sokka (Avatar)
Series: each night i ask the stars up above / why must I be a teenager in love? [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1812379
Comments: 77
Kudos: 354





	'cuz we're the greatest / they'll hang us in the louvre

Suki sits outside Yue’s window. She’s wedged between a few thick branches, twigs in her hair, and the early evening wind brushes through her hair like fingers running through sand. If she takes her earbuds out she can hear Yue inside, hurriedly changing from pajamas to jeans and a crop top. The rustling of clothes, the quiet _pop_ of a lipstick container being opened. The summer night air sits heavily on her shoulders, humidity waiting to fall into dew. It smells like nostalgia for something Suki doesn't remember.

Suki stretches her legs out in front of her and glances down the street. Zuko and Sokka are waiting for the pair at the corner, haloed by a streetlight and leaning against the pole of a sign that proclaims Yue’s street as _Tui Boulevard._ Zuko’s clutching his left ring finger with a pained look on his face and Sokka has his arm around the other boy’s shoulders, quietly murmuring… apologies? Jokes? Suki never knows with them. 

Sokka catches her eye and waves enthusiastically, shooting an OK sign. She rolls her eyes back at him and starts to rummage through her shoulder bag for chapstick. She’s always the one of the four of them to come prepared, with her water bottles and carabiner and swiss army knives, and she likes it that way. Being needed. 

Suki glances through the open window again. She can only see the edge of Yue’s reflection in the mirror, but it looks like her hair is done and she can see the other girl’s pajamas in a pile on the bed. She uncaps the chapstick and carefully smears pink-flavored petroleum on her lips.

Yue finally sticks her head out the window, smiling tentatively at Suki and starting to climb out onto the branch. “Ugh, thanks for coming to get me. I love my family, but I might actually scream if I’m stuck in that house another day.”

She looks _gorgeous,_ all soft lines and lithe muscles. She only ties her undercut up when she’s out with Suki but someone must have shaved the triangle of it recently and her ponytails fall lightly over the stubbly hair. Suki wants to run her hands over it. 

Yue sits lightly on the branch next to Suki, a far cry from the sprawling way Suki positions herself, each limb over a different part of the tree, feet braced against the trunk. “Uh,” Suki says, because that’s all that she can manage. Yue’s quiet smile melts into a more amused one. “Yeah, of course. It’s no fun without you,” Suki finally says.

“You’re sweet,” Yue says, then swings down the tree, dropping lightly from branch to branch like the _fucking goddess_ that she is. Suki fumbles along behind her, messenger bag hitting against branches, hair catching every twig within a foot of her face. When she finally lands on the ground Yue is there to pick twigs out of her ponytail and finger comb stray hairs back to their place. Sokka and Zuko watch the entire charade with amused looks that Suki can only see out of the corner of her eye and she knows the pair will tease both of them about it later.

Suki's a little bit in love with Yue. She’s fine with the whole pining-since-fifth grade vibe she’s got going on here. She can keep this up through high school, at _least,_ especially with Yue going to a fancy private school in the rich side of town. She can, and she’s going to, it's just gotten _so much harder_ since middle school. Maybe it's because she's not twelve anymore and has actual hormones or maybe it's just because she's not around Yue 24/7 anymore, but she swears the other girl gets hotter every time Suki sees her. Not that Suki has been seeing her as often these days.

“Come _on,_ guys,” Sokka says, and Zuko waves his bleeding hand in the air. 

"Good to see you again, Yue! You look great." He smiles his awkward greeting smile, the stage between his fake-intimidating look when he's standing around waiting for someone and his soft grin when he's happy around people he loves. 

Yue glances down at her outfit, self consciousness etching itself across her face. She's wearing the classic big pants small top look, a far cry from Zuko's usual Sokka's-big-sweatshirt and tight jeans. She, to reiterate, looks gorgeous and Suki wishes she could tell her, wishes she could kiss the sentiment across her jawline until she never felt self conscious again. "Thanks, Zuko."

"Mushroom shirt is adorable," Sokka agrees, tossing a cheeto in his mouth and holding one out for Suki. She's not sure where they came from, because he didn't have any snacks when the trio got out of Sokka's car to find Yue, but she's not going to complain. "Wait, Suki, did you have a band-aid? I kinda stabbed Zuko. Like it's fine he's only bleeding a little. I just don't want him to get blood on my sweatshirt."

Yue exchanges a look with Zuko and says, "I don't know, Sokka, that one might be okay to ruin. It's... oh, I don't know how to say this..."

Suki starts to rummage through her knapsack for the loose band-aids she keeps. A few of them are Peppa Pig ones, stolen from her job at the YMCA. You'd be surprised how many band-aids you need as a lifeguard. "Ugly as shit?" she suggests, and Yue snaps her long, elegant fingers.

"Exactly. Stole the words out of my mouth, babe."

 _Babe,_ Sokka mouths at Suki, and Suki throws a band-aid at Zuko. "It's got fish on it," she says. "Koi." It's one of the weird ones designed to wrap around your fingers without creases and Zuko obviously doesn't know how to use them. Sokka wraps his arms around his boyfriend from behind, tenderly holding the injured hand and applying the bandage with all the love of someone sliding a ring onto their fiance's finger.

Yue rolls her eyes and adjusts the hem of her shirt. It really is a cute shirt, blue and white mushroom decals on the front. Yue's colors are blues and grays and she knows it. They bring out her eyes. Fuck, everything brings out her eyes, even just the flickering streetlight they're standing under.

"You look good tonight," Suki says, then flushes. "Not that you don't usually look good, I just-"

Yue blinks at her and Suki can't read her expression. She doesn't know if she's getting worse at it, if the past three years at different high schools wrecked her ability to know Yue's thoughts, or if Yue is just getting better at hiding her emotions. She doesn't know which would be preferable.

"I just-" she tries again, but the boys have finished up their moment with the bandaid and are halfway down the sidewalk. Yue nods her head at them and her bleached-silver hair waterfalls over her shoulders. 

"We should catch up with them," she says quietly and Suki doesn't know where the sad edge to her voice came from. Suki doesn't know _anything._

"Yeah. Sokka's not exactly patient," Suki jokes, and when she looks again any sadness is gone from Yue's face.

Yue giggles, a hand delicately in front of her mouth, then her face lights up. "Race you to the pool fence," she says, eyes twinkling. Yue's hair streams out behind her like moonbeams as she sprints down the sidewalk, deftly avoiding cracks in the pavement and leaping over stubborn dandelions.

It's only a second before Suki regains her bearings and starts to chase after her. Suki relishes the pounding of her feet against the pavement, the night breeze against her face, the push and pull of all the forces against her, things she only notices when she runs. She and Sokka and Yue did track together in middle school and Yue beat a few records with her long legs and smooth muscles. Suki and Sokka quit in high school when Sokka needed more time to go to football practice and Suki needed more time to work and smoke behind the school with Zuko. A lot has changed since middle school. Suki can't decide if it's a good thing.

Yue wins, of course. She comes to a graceful halt a few inches before the tall, chain link fence surrounding the community pool. Suki slams into it a moment later, diamonds of twisted metal pressing into her cheeks and forearms. "Ugh," she groans, tossing an arm over her face. "You're so fast."

Yue falls back against the fence and stares out at the sky. "Thanks," she says, the word a smile in itself. Suki follows her gaze to where it's settled on the full moon. There's a haze of clouds around it glowing white against the dark sky behind them and it seems so far away, so incredibly indifferent that Suki can't look at it anymore. She turns her head to the side to look at Yue instead. Yue's pale clothes and hair glow in the moonlight and her brown skin is darkened by shadows that caress her face and frame her eyes. She gazes up at the moon like she's hypnotized, the same way children and elders stare at candle flames. 

"I wish I were on the moon sometimes," she says and Suki watches her mouth. "It seems like it would be easier to be so far away."

 _I need you here,_ Suki wants to say. She knows that's not what Yue wants her to say. She knows, even after three years of growing apart in fits and starts, that the only reason Yue would want to be so far away is so that she wouldn't be needed by so many people. "I would remember you whenever I looked to the sky," Suki says. 

"I'd appreciate it," Yue says softly. She rolls over against the fence so that she's pressed against Suki. Her hair tickles at Suki's cheeks and her hands cup Suki's jaw. Every place their skin touches feels electric, feels like falling backwards into snow, the cold burn of ice on the back of your neck. "Would you miss me?"

"More than anything," Suki breathes, because she _does._ She misses her best friend more than anything, but she can't bear to be this close anymore. It's just easier to keep her distance, to end their snap streak even though she knows Yue hates starting conversations, to accidentally forget to add Yue to group chats for making plans. It helps avoid situations like this where Yue is pressed up against her, so close that Suki thinks she can feel Yue's eyelashes against her cheeks. It helps. Suki thinks.

She swallows unevenly and doesn't let her gaze flicker to Yue's mouth, the sharp curve of her upper lip and the softness of her smile, the way Suki knows she's biting her lip just a little. Suki swallows again and ducks out from behind Suki, stretching and taking a few bounding steps back to where Zuko and Sokka are still walking toward them, lost in their own world.

"Hey, losers," Suki starts, because there's no way to express affection like being a bitch. Yue steps up behind her and Suki knows that they're back on the same wavelength again, even for only a moment. 

"Wanna break into a pool?" Yue finishes. There's a big fat padlock on the front gates of the pool and Suki left her bolt cutters at home because they're heavy and property damage is a hefty charge to have before you graduate high school but the fence isn't much taller that Sokka and chain link fences are basically meant to be climbed.

Zuko's eyes light up. "Uh, yeah! I haven't gone swimming in way too long."

"I'm all for trespassing and also swimming," Sokka says, "but what about cops? I don't want to-"

"No police out here unless someone calls them," Yue says. She's already starting to nestle her feet into the chinks in the chain link. "There are upsides to living in the rich people neighborhood."

"C'mon," Zuko says, wrapping his fingers around the wire fence, "The night won't last forever."

~

Suki sits on a plastic folding chair next to Zuko. He didn't swim because wet binders are a recipe for disaster and Suki didn't swim because Yue is floating spread-eagled in the water wearing nothing but her bra and a pair of boy shorts and if Suki got any closer she would literally combust. Suki watches her watch the moon, the way her eyelashes flutter closed, then snap open when Sokka splashes her. 

"How long have you known Yue?" Zuko asks. He sounds nervous to ask, which Suki gets. She doesn't like it, hates when people feel nervous around her, but she understands. Zuko's always awkward when he asks about parts of Suki and Sokka's pasts, a determined expression on his face that makes it clear he thinks he should already know anything he's about to ask. Suki wishes that he'd been with them as long as they've known each other. Still, he fits the position of newest addition to the group well.

"Since first grade," Suki says, not quite ready to look away from Yue's water fight with Sokka. They both look in their element. They've always been a little more happy, a little more open when they're in the water. Suki would have all her birthdays at the water park just so she could see them like that. "She's my oldest friend." She braces herself for teasing, but Zuko just smiles sadly at her.

"That sucks, buddy." When she glances over at him he's staring out at the pair in the water too. A tiny smile quirks at the corner of his lips and Suki finds herself imitating it, smiling out at the empty pool. Sokka almost disappears in the darkness of the night but Yue's pale hair and white bra reflect every beam of light on the block, gleaming and burning into Suki's vision when she blinks. Yue catches her eye mid-splash and waves her dumb royalty wave, rotating her hand back and forth.

Suki waves back. "Yeah. Yeah, it kinda does."

~

"It's gorgeous out," Yue says. She's lying on her back on a diving board and Suki is half-braiding, half-finger combing her hair, the silvery strands falling between her fingers like water. It's drying slowly but still feels silkier than Suki's ever does. Suki would wonder what conditioner the other girl is using but Yue's hair has always been magic like that. 

Suki wraps a strand of hair between her fingers and gazes up at the sky. "I wish it could always be like this."

Yue hums. "Sometimes I do. Sometimes I just want to know what the future will give me. I want to know what happens next."

"I'm too scared to know what's next," Sokka says from the pool. He's wrapped himself in pool noodles and is just a silhouette against the backdrop of a streetlight. 

"This is what being a teenager is supposed to be like," Zuko says. He leans against Suki's back, feet dangling off the diving board and toeing the water. "This is what it should be like. I feel infinite."

"Fucking Perks of Being a Wallflower-ass nerd," Suki jokes, but she doesn't argue. Feeling like a god because you're young is the start of every tragedy Suki's ever ready but it feels so good, ghostly and hazy. Like forgetting the future you'll never have, remembering the childhood TV tells you you should have had.

"Whatever," Zuko says. They're listening to Lorde but the sound from Zuko's phone dissipates into the night sky as soon as it leaves the speakers so Suki can only catch every third line. _Dancing with our shoes off / know I think you're awesome, right?_

"School's going to start again soon," Sokka offers. His wolftail is half-fallen out, dark hair plastered over his nose and fanning over his forehead. He looks incredibly dumb but Zuko still looks at him like he put the moon in the sky. Suki can't find the effort to be jealous and she's just covered in a wave of love for her friends. It's so easy to be around them, even when it's hard. Suki doesn't know how to explain it. She never knows how to explain anything. 

"Football season," Zuko agrees, and you can tell he's already thinking about Sokka running off the field, sweaty and glowing with victory. 

"Ugh," Suki says, "remind me not to come to any of your games."

"I'd love to come to one," Yue says, looking up at Suki. "I haven't gone to one since freshman year." And they're going into senior year. Suki knows she looks guilty about it. She's not sure when she stopped inviting Yue to the games, but it was definitely before she stopped going herself. Sokka stopped texting her the details too. He's always been good like that, taking care not to put Suki in situations she's not comfortable in. Yue's eyes go sad when she meets Suki's and she closes them a second later, eyelashes dark against brown skin.

Suki braids another section of Yue's hair, then undoes it with a smooth gesture. "It's been that long? Huh," she says. _We didn't mean to leave you behind,_ she wants to say, but she knows it was never _we,_ just her. Sokka was always the one to ask if they should invite Yue, to nudge Suki toward explaining. 

"It doesn't matter," Yue says, but it obviously does. Suki swallows and Zuko stares up at the sky.

"That one's the big dipper," he says, pointing up at the sky. The stars are only vaguely visible from where they are, drowned out by the white noise of nearby streetlights and warm glows coming from windows. Sokka flips over onto his back to stare up at the sky and the water around him sloshes against the sides of the pool. 

"The fisher!" Sokka says happily, obviously eager to switch the conversation to something less tense. "It's kinda like a weasel. It's my favorite constellation because it's one of the only ones you can find from my backyard." There's another lull in conversation, then a splash as Sokka doggy paddles to the edge of the pool and rests his head on his arms. "Have I told you guys that constellation story?"

Suki's heard the story of the fisher at least seven times from Sokka and another three from Sokka's dads over years of sleepovers at his house, but she wouldn't mind hearing it again. Yue seems to be thinking the same thing and they shake their heads in tandem.

"Okay, okay, so the fisher is like, this weasel-type guy living in a world where it's always winter- this was a long time ago, okay, so-"

Suki smiles down at Yue, who smiles up at the moon. Even if tonight won't last forever, she thinks, they'll always have Sokka and his bad attempts at telling stories. 

~

They wind up back in the tree outside Yue's window, saying their slow goodbyes. Sokka and Zuko sit on the hood of Sokka's car a block away, probably whispering bad jokes at each other and flirting. Suki will join them as soon as she finishes saying goodnight, but that could take a while. Will take a while, if Suki has anything to say about it. She doesn't want to say goodbye, doesn't want the night to end. 

Yue's hair whispers at Suki's neck in late night breeze and Suki smiles to herself. "I've missed you," she says, dragging a twig out of her top knot.

"I miss you too," Yue says. Her eyes are open and- goddammit, Suki does know what else. Sad? Hopeful? "Why don't you talk to me?"

"What do you mean?" Suki tries, but she knows it's not fair. It's mean and weird to start conversations about feelings and then chicken out, she just doesn't know how to finish them. She wants to be open. She wants to be able to go into a conversation and lay her feelings out on the table the same way Sokka can, but he makes it look easy. It's not. "No, yeah. I-" she sighs. "You're just-" try again. "I can't-" nope.

Yue frowns at her. "I'm sorry if I've made you uncomfortable, Suki. I know that I can be... affectionate, I suppose, but we've always-"

"You- what?" Suki grabs one of Yue's hands, even though the action feels like setting her heart on fire. "No, no, I didn't want to make _you_ uncomfortable." Yue's hands are soft in Suki's, warm and slender. Suki thinks about an article she read once about thinking you might crush a girl's hand the first time you hold it, the fear that your wanting will be too much. "You're just- like obviously you're not straight, but I thought you were freshman year, and god, I've-" she swallows. "I think I've been in love with you since fifth grade or something absurd like that, like the first time you told me about the phases of the moon and I looked at you and you smiled at me and you've always smiled at me and it feels like something is _breaking_ in me when you do. And it's just easier to not talk than to worry that I'm giving myself away or getting too close and I'm _sorry._ I miss you so much."

Yue blinks slowly at her. "Why didn't you _tell_ me?" She asks plaintively. 

"I'm not good at stuff like that," Suki says. "I dunno. It was just easier to not." She doesn't know what she was waiting for- maybe for Yue to give up or for her to give up or for Sokka to give up, something to let her let everything sink into memory. 

"What do you need me to do?" Yue asks, face open. Suki is struck by the realization that of course Yue sees this as helping Suki, that of course she's just trying to mend them for Suki. Yue helps and she sacrifices. 

"I don't need you to do anything for me," Suki says, leaning closer and taking Yue's other hand. "I never do. I just want you to do things for _yourself._ I want you to let me help you, I guess."

"I don't know how to let you help me," Yue says finally. "I barely even know what I want." Her face is framed by pale hair and her mascara clumps at the ends of her eyelashes- little things that Suki can't see from any further away than she is now.

"Well, what's one thing," Suki says, trying to sound reasonable. She's not good at helping or talking people through things but she _needs_ to be able to help. "Like, I want more of Sokka's cheetos. I don't know where he got the bag or where it went, but I'm sure it's somewhere."

Yue cracks a smile. "I want some more bath bombs and I want to go to Sokka's football games with you," she says, face screwed up adorably. The tree rustles with a gust of wind and Yue's hair flies up around her. "I want some more donuts from Kwik Trip and to go back and swim some more. I want tonight to last forever but I also want to know who I'll be in twenty years." Yue takes a breath. "I want you to kiss me," she says, and Suki stops breathing. 

It feels like falling but also the last piece of a puzzle coming together. It's awkward, yeah, and Yue's hair gets in the way of Suki's mouth and there's a moment where they're both very close to falling out of the tree but it works. It's a soft press of lips, Suki's hands on Yue's waist, Yue's on Suki's neck. They _fit._

Suki pulls away first but stays only a few inches away from Yue, not willing to break contact. "I wanted to tell you that you look gorgeous," she says, "earlier, I mean. I mean I wanted to tell you earlier. You're still beautiful. You practically glow." Suki stares up at the sky and knows that Yue is watching her. She turns and presses a kiss to the corner of Yue's mouth. "I'm over the moon for you, Yue. I just want you to know."

**Author's Note:**

> \- Very Interested in how the teenagers interact with people needing them and how they got into the situations where people need them. like yue was born into it and it was a situation that was thrust upon sokka, whereas suki probably came the closest to choosing it, being the leader of the kyoshi warriors. zuko and yue both see it as an honor, altho to yue that view is more of a resignation whereas zuko is Very Excited about this honor. anyway just some thoughts.  
> \- the article i mentioned in one paragraph is called [the queer erotics of handholding in literature](https://electricliterature.com/the-queer-erotics-of-handholding-in-literature/) and idk man. maybe it's the fact that i'm the kind of lesbian who reblogs moodboards of hand paintings on tumblr but this article makes me Feel things. also my now-girlfriend sent it to me when we first started dating so.  
> \- this fic is because i was listening to melodrama by lorde and thinking about yue so yeah  
> \- please comment and kudos! seeing feedback makes me so happy :D  
> \- you can find me on tumblr [@lazypigeon](https://lazypigeon.tumblr.com/).


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